Dragon Boat Festival Celebrates Asian Culture
Races, Chinese opera, and crafts free on Sunday
Dragons are invading the Charles River this weekend.
These dragons, made of teakwood and powered by 18 rowers seated side by side, create a magical flotilla at the annual Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival of Boston. Decorated in brilliant colors, each boat includes a steersperson at the rudder and a drummer, whose beat sets the pace for the crew. The boats will race on the Charles between the Weeks Footbridge and Western Avenue.
Traditionally held on the fifth day of the fifth moon on the lunar calendar, the pan-Asian sporting and cultural event celebrates traditions reaching back nearly 2,300 years. The festival begins at 9 a.m. Sunday, June 13, with races; at noon arts and crafts demonstrations, food, and performances, including Korean taekwon-do, Chinese yo-yo, and Chinese opera, begin on Memorial Drive. The awards ceremony for the winning dragon boats is at 5 p.m.
The Greater Boston Chinese Cultural Association will offer workshops, which at past festivals have included making zung-ze (rice steamed in bamboo leaves, peanuts, pork, and Chinese mushrooms) and crafting dough figures, Chinese macramé, creative fans, and Peking opera masks, as well as lessons in paper folding, paper cuttings, and calligraphy.
The annual Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival of Boston runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, June 13, on the Charles River between the Weeks Footbridge and Western Avenue. Food, demonstrations, and performances begin at noon along Memorial Drive, Cambridge. Time trials for racing boats is on Saturday, June 12, from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., from the MIT Pierce Boathouse, 409 Memorial Dr., Cambridge.
Kimberly Cornuelle can be reached at kcornuel@bu.edu; follow her on Twitter at @kcornuel.
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